The present invention relates to apparatuses and devices used to scare deer and other unwanted animals away from agricultural areas. More particularly, the present invention relates to scarecrow type apparatuses and devices placed in agricultural fields to scare away unwanted animals tending to damage crops. With even greater particularity, the present invention relates to a powered scarecrow capable of generating unnatural audible and visual stimuli for scaring unwanted animals away from agricultural areas.
The protection of agricultural production areas from various animals having a tendency to damage the aforementioned areas is an age-old problem. Farmers, in an attempt to protect crop producing areas, have utilized various methods and apparatuses to both keep out and scare away unwanted animals from crop producing areas. Primarily, in order to keep larger animals capable of completely devastating a crop producing area out of the area, farmers have utilized fencing. However, wild deer, which are larger animals capable of completely destroying crops in a particular area, are known for easily jumping over such fences, thus rendering the fences useless against such animals. Further contributing to this problem is the tendency of wild deer to travel and feed in numbers, which allows for the destruction and/or consumption of agricultural crops more rapidly.
In view of the substantial cost associated with building fences around crops tall enough to preclude deer from jumping into the crop producing areas, farmers have generally turned to the tactic of scaring deer away from such areas. Attempting to scare deer away from crops has been accomplished through various apparatuses and devices. U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,571 to Gaskill teaches a DEER SCARECROW having an essentially rectangular body with arms and a simulated head extending therefrom. Streamers attached to the arms and lower body portion of the scarecrow wave in the wind, thereby creating visual stimuli claimed to scare away deer. This apparatus also includes a noise-making device inserted within a sewn pocket of the scarecrow, along with a scent emitting device. Although claimed to scare away deer using the streamers, the noise emitting device sewn into a pocket, and the scent emitting device; wild deer, which have been know to intelligently distinguish patterns, are likely not scared by this apparatus. Inasmuch as the scarecrow itself is completely stationary, the streamers blowing in the wind are likely synonymous with leaves and the like blowing on trees. Further, a noise emitting device limited in size to that which can be sewn into a pocket of a scarecrow is also likely insufficient to effectively scare away deer.
Another apparatus for scaring unwanted animals away from agricultural areas is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,105 to Porter. This apparatus utilizes a vertically oriented driven rotating structure having a plurality of weighted lines attached thereto for rotation about the structure. Upon rotation of the structure, the weighted lines are centrifugally extended in accordance with the rotation speed of the structure. Attached to the terminating end of the lines are sound producing weights, which emit sound vibrations in accordance with the rotation speed of the structure. A control means varies the extension of the lines and the rotation speed of the structure during operation. Again, however, deer seem to become accustomed, and thus not frightened by this type of apparatus. Therefore, there exists a need for an apparatus to effectively scare deer and other wild animals away from agricultural areas using unnatural audible and visual stimuli, such that crop damage is minimized and crop production is maximized.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a reliable apparatus for scaring deer and other unwanted wild animals away from crop producing agricultural areas using unnatural audible and visual stimuli. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reliable apparatus for scaring deer and other unwanted animals away from agricultural areas using a metal on metal type audible sound calculated to effectively scare deer. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for scaring deer and other wild animals away from crop producing areas using a combination of electrically operated and electronically controlled unnatural audible and visual stimuli at various intervals of time. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for scaring deer and other unwanted wild animals, capable of sustained operation in remote areas.